AI VCC News
[Apr. 04, 2026] Developing Robots Serves Wars: In an article by Luke Harding published in the Guardian today points out that the use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024 and argues that this rapid development of drones and robots and their broad use in wars changes the nature of war into a contest of technology. The article titled “‘The frontline is like Terminator’: fighting robots give Ukraine hope in war with Russia” features a wide range of robots including killer robots that have been developed in the Ukraine in the five years of war. This development shows that all development of very smart robots for peaceful application also supports the further development of those that can kill and do kill.
[Mar. 08, 2026] Should Tech Oligarchs Reshape Humanity and Determine Our Future?: Eduardo Porter in the Guardian article titled “Tech oligarchs reshape humanity while billionaires of old seem quaint” emphasizes the uniqueness of the current situation, where the future of technology, and with this the future of humanity, is determined by a few tech oligarchs without any deliberation or democratic processes involving many. The author underlines the worldview of these oligarchs “is embedded in a belief that technology offers the best solution to all of humanity’s challenges, whether social, political, economic, demographic, biological, psychological, environmental, or whatever other dimension one might think of.” Porter reminds us of Altman, the CEO of OpenAI arguing that “Humanity “will be the first species ever to design our own descendants.”
[Feb. 24, 2026] AI-Generated Stuff is Impacting Human Relations and a Danger to Our Dignity: Polly Hudson in her article in The Guardian titled “Amused by that AI video of a dancing raccoon? This is how the misery starts ...” makes some very good points about impact of the flood of AI-generated videos on human relations and human dignity. With the rapidly growing flood of amusing little online scenarios on social media, we really cannot be sure that something looking funny, weird, or special is real - it could be AI-generated! Even a video on You-Tube with a speech of someone we like saying things we like may be AI-generated.
Our friends may believe something of this junk is real. How does our friend feel when we tell them: “How could you think this was real?”
With this, AI is tricking us and already coming for our dignity. The important question asked by Hudson: How long before it comes for everything else?
[Feb. 24, 2026] New Scenario for 2028 Points to an AI-related Highly Undesirable Future for Economy: Aisha Down and Dan Milmo discuss in their article “‘A feedback loop with no brake’: how an AI doomsday report shook US markets” the scenario study “THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future” by Citrini and Alap Shah posted on February 22, 2026 on Substack. This study points out that the financial system of today was optimized over decades for a world of scarce human minds. AI changed this: “This is the first time in history the most productive asset in the economy has produced fewer, not more, jobs. Nobody’s framework fits, because none were designed for a world where the scarce input became abundant. So we have to make new frameworks. Whether we build them in time is the only question that matters.” The authors point out that the economy could find a new equilibrium, and “getting to this new equilibrium is one of the few tasks left that only humans can do. We need to do it correctly.”
Platform News
[Apr. 25, 2026] World Happiness Report Finds Positive Impacts of Collaborative Platforms: The World Happiness Report 2026 has a strong focus on the impacts of social media and the Web in general on human happiness. The results of most studies indicate that the use of most social media seems to have a negative impact on happiness, while those tools that generate trust and collaboration have a positive impact. The report sumarizes: “Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.” This supports the mission of Place4Us as a trust-focused collaborative platform for intercreativity and learning.
[Apr. 25, 2026] Neurodivergence VCC opened: The "Made by Neurodivergence VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 21, 2026] SlaveryToday VCC opened: The "Fighting Modern Slavery VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[Apr. 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.
